Of the usefulness of buying an iphone in HongKong?

[ariddle]

Hello everyone,

I'm actually living in Asia, changing country every 6 month and will continue to do so for the next couple of years. Until now, I've always bought a different cheap phone in each countries. But today I'm wondering if buying an unlocked iphone in hongkong wouldn't be a better solution...

The problem is that even if I understand the basic idea of unlocking, being able to put any sim card in the telephone, I still got some of questions about it I hope you could help me with them.

1. What happen if I buy an unlocked iphone, and then I put inside a sim card that only allow to pass call and use sms? Will the Iphone recognise and accept it or not? (bassicaly I'm not interessed in surfing the internet all the time, being able to connect to a wifi network would be enough). Can I buy a 20$ sim card + a 10$ charge and use the iphone with that?

2. What happen when you change sim card? Do you loose all your contact infiormation, your application, your notes and schedule? part of it, or nothing? In the best case I assume that you won't loose anything because everything is stocked in the iphone, but I can't say for sure.

The main reason for buying an iphone, here, is to save time, if I can have all my contact in one phone, write information about them in the phone (instead of a physical bloc note), it would be a good start.

Thank you for your answer

 

[daleski75]

Hello everyone,

I'm actually living in Asia, changing country every 6 month and will continue to do so for the next couple of years. Until now, I've always bought a different cheap phone in each countries. But today I'm wondering if buying an unlocked iphone in hongkong wouldn't be a better solution...

The problem is that even if I understand the basic idea of unlocking, being able to put any sim card in the telephone, I still got some of questions about it I hope you could help me with them.

1. What happen if I buy an unlocked iphone, and then I put inside a sim card that only allow to pass call and use sms? Will the Iphone recognise and accept it or not? (bassicaly I'm not interessed in surfing the internet all the time, being able to connect to a wifi network would be enough). Can I buy a 20$ sim card + a 10$ charge and use the iphone with that?

2. What happen when you change sim card? Do you loose all your contact infiormation, your application, your notes and schedule? part of it, or nothing? In the best case I assume that you won't loose anything because everything is stocked in the iphone, but I can't say for sure.

The main reason for buying an iphone, here, is to save time, if I can have all my contact in one phone, write information about them in the phone (instead of a physical bloc note), it would be a good start.

Thank you for your answer

1. If you buy an unlocked phone from Hong Kong it will accept any simcard and it will work right away

2. Contacts are stored on the phone itself so as long as you sync with itunes you wont lose contacts, notes, calanders (as long as these are ticked under itunes)

 

[dave006]

Just a quick reminder, your one year warranty will only be valid in Hong Kong.

I will echo the previous poster that while the iPhone has a built-in function to miove your SIM contacts to the iPhone, it stores all contact information in the iPhone and expects to sync to your Mac or PC via iTunes or MobileMe. It does not have a built-in function to export your contact back to the SIM.

Dave

 

[ariddle]

Thank you.

I see, so as long as we use itunes they won't be any problem.
Tiebraker question:
Does sim card with 3G exist (you buy it and it allow say 300 mo of 3G in the country)? If so, what happen to the 3G if you buy a sim card without it? You cannot use it at all, or just with a small limitation (10 mo of data for exemple)

I though I would buy an iphone 3G, but Apple is not the worse company regarding the marketing. And now I'm at a loss to know what to choose: 3G or 3GS (or even Ipod touch + unlocked phone). So I need your opinion to know what to choose

The 3GS is not available yet in hongkong though. But it according to the test and feedback of customer it's seems highly practical (faster, voice command, possibility of augmented reality)

There is a bit too much euphoria out there at the moment to make a rationnal choice.

I'm looking in the end, to be able to access the App store (lot of application will be usefull to me, japanese dictionnary, personnal agenda, shazam) and for a unlocked phone.

If I go for the Ipod touch, should I wait till the release of a new one? If I go for the iphone, does the 3GS regarding my expecting use would deserve to put 1000-2000 hk $ more in it?

Thank you